For the past two years Cuppa Coffee has donated its services to produce the trailer for the Planet in Focus 2004 International Environmental Film and Video Festival. Planet in Focus is an incorporated not-for-profit organization founded in 1999 by festival director Mark Haslam. The festivals honorary patron is the renowned scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster, Dr. David Suzuki.
For this years festival, running from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3, 2004 in Toronto, Cuppa Coffee is creating a 30-second PSA for on-air broadcast as well as a one minute trailer to be shown before each screening. The challenge was to create a trailer that reflects the following festival mission statements to promote the use of film and video as a catalyst for public awareness, discussion and appropriate action on the ecological and social health of the planet; to include diverse perspectives; to promote social and ecological sustainability in all festival operations; and to forge relationships with organizations and individuals who have similar goals.
To achieve these goals, the Cuppa Coffee creative team first did some individual brainstorming, coming up with ideas and concepts. In the end, it was decided to incorporate a number of ideas into the spot to truly reflect the diversity of the festival. Instead of picking just once concept we decided to combine several ideas into one, explains director Warren Brown. Among the ideas we embraced were concepts like walking the green carpet as represented by footage of feet walking through grassy fields, and using marionettes to represent the synthetic world and the organic world captured in the light of a projector as they dance in balance. In places, bits of rubbish and newspaper were used as a canvas, forming icons of film and the environment as well as images of cameras keeping a focused eye on spinning globes and turtles - key elements of the festival logo.
The end result is a mix of animation embracing a broad range of mediums and styles with the balance between synthetic and organic. Paralleling the theme of diversity, a combination of stop-motion, traditional cel animation, marionette puppetry and treated live-action come together in a mixed media piece. The concepts of recycling and innovation were also incorporated into the trailer with a broad range of materials, including old newspapers, puppets created from found objects, and bits of discarded packaging.
Prashant Miranda, who contributed designs and animation for the spots, said, It was tremendous fun for me to collect leaves on my walk to work and animate them, or animate the peel of an orange that I had just eaten for breakfast. During the process I became more conscious of the aspects or reuse and recycle. Simple things like hemp twine, the flowers on my window sill, or even the candy I ate took on new meanings in the trailer.
Cuppa Coffee exec producer Adam Shaheen added, Projects such as these present a wonderful opportunity to do what we do best, while contributing something positive to a worthwhile organization. Its a pleasure to donate our time and efforts to clients with such a positive message.
Tools used on the project include Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Final Cut Pro.
Cuppa Coffee credits include:Exec producer: Adam ShaheenCreative director: Warren BrownPost-production surpervisor/editor/animation: Nick SewellDesign/animation: Prashant MirandaDesign/animation/marionettes: Daniel Robinson
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